Is Westmount, London Ontario Safe? What the Data Actually Shows

If you've searched "is Westmount safe" before looking at a house there, you're not the only one — it's one of the more common questions we get about this neighbourhood, usually tied to a Reddit thread or an old news story about Westmount Mall. Rather than wave that away, here's what the actual data says, what those incidents actually were, and how to check any specific street yourself.

Is Westmount, London Ontario Safe?

Broadly, yes. There's no official, published crime statistic specific to Westmount alone — more on why below — but citywide crime in London has fallen sharply over the past two years, and the handful of incidents that show up when you search Westmount online trace back to a small number of isolated events at one commercial plaza, not a pattern across the neighbourhood's residential streets.

How Has Crime Changed Citywide in London Ontario?

London's Crime Severity Index (CSI) — the standardized measure Statistics Canada uses to compare crime across Canadian cities — was 61.2 in 2024, down 6% from the year before and roughly 21% below the national average of 77.9. The London Police Service's own 2024 annual report shows shootings citywide fell 48% year-over-year, from 27 to 14. Both trends point the same direction: London has been getting measurably safer, not less safe.

Why Isn't There an Official Westmount Crime Rate?

Because neither Statistics Canada nor the London Police Service publishes crime data broken down by neighbourhood — their reporting is citywide only. Any site that shows you a specific "Westmount crime score" is generating an estimate from public records and community input, not quoting an official police statistic. That's worth knowing before you weigh one of those scores too heavily either way.

What About the Westmount Mall Incidents People Bring Up Online?

A few real, dated incidents are what's actually driving most of the online chatter: an armed robbery in the Westmount Mall parking lot in February 2018, arrests at a nearby townhouse complex in August 2021, a shooting investigation near the mall in July 2022, and a 2024 case where a man following school-aged girls in the area was identified and criminally charged. Each of these is real and each was reported by a legitimate outlet — CBC, Global News, and the London Free Press. But four dated, resolved incidents spread across six years at a shopping mall — every one of them ending in an arrest or a charge — is a different thing than an unsafe neighbourhood. Malls in most cities see occasional incidents in their parking lots; Westmount's residential streets, a few minutes away, are a different environment entirely.

How Can You Check Crime Data for a Specific Street or Block?

Skip the aggregator sites and go to the source. The London Police Service's live Crime Map lets you search any address in the city and see reported incidents nearby, updated regularly. If you're seriously considering a specific home in Westmount, or anywhere else in London, that tool gives you a real answer for that exact block rather than a neighbourhood-wide estimate.

What Do Independent Neighbourhood Ratings Say About Westmount?

RateMyNeighbourhood.ca, an independent site that scores London neighbourhoods from public data and resident input, rates Westmount 7.6 out of 10 and ranks it 4th out of 19 neighbourhoods it covers — solidly above-average by its methodology, for whatever a third-party estimate is worth alongside the primary sources above.

Weighing Westmount against other West London neighbourhoods on price, schools, or lifestyle? Our Westmount vs. West London comparison covers that ground. Have questions specific to a property you're looking at? Reach out to Justin — as a West London specialist working this area daily, he can walk through exactly what a specific street or listing looks like, not just the neighbourhood in general.